The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry has updated answers to frequently asked questions about a paid sick leave requirement that went into effect January 1, 2024. All employees who work at least 80 hours in a year for an employer in Minnesota are covered by the paid sick leave law.
The details
The updated guidance is dated Dec. 4, 2023, and addresses various subjects, including accrual, front-loading, employee notice, pay during leave, recordkeeping, and more.
Accrual
The updated guidance clarifies that:
Accrual begins immediately when an employee starts working for an employer, even before the employee works at least 80 hours in a year for an employer in Minnesota.
The law doesn’t require employers to credit employees for partial hours of paid sick leave, such as a half-hour after 15 hours worked. Employers may credit paid sick leave in 30-hour blocks, resulting in one hour of such leave. Employers may also choose to credit employees in partial hours of paid sick leave, as long as they are earning paid sick leave hours at a rate of at least one hour for every 30 hours worked.
Paid sick leave is required to accrue for any employee who works at least 80 hours in a year for an employer in Minnesota. If an employee works in another state, the employer isn’t required to provide paid sick leave under Minnesota law for out-of-state hours worked. However, the employee must accrue paid sick leave at a rate of at least one hour for every 30 hours worked in Minnesota.
Front-loading
The guidance makes clear the law doesn’t authorize prorating front-loaded paid sick leave hours. An employer must provide at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to at least 48 hours per year, or front-load at least 48 hours. However, an employer could choose to place new employees on an accrual system when hired, and then switch them to a front-loaded system at the beginning of the next accrual year.
Employee Notice
An employer can require notice of intent to use paid sick leave up to seven days in advance when it is used for a foreseeable reason, according to the guidance. If the employer has a written policy regarding the procedures to provide notice up to seven days in advance and the employer has provided a copy of this written policy to the employee, the employer can deny the employee’s request to use paid sick leave if the employee did not follow the notice requirements in the policy.
Pay During Leave
Employers should ensure that employees receive paid sick leave at a rate equivalent to the hourly rate they would earn from employment, and in no case can such leave be paid at a rate below the applicable minimum wage.
Some employers pay employees through piece rates, by the mile, a daily rate or another non-hourly rate. An employer that uses one of these types of pay systems could calculate an hourly rate for employees by, for example, using an employee’s last several paychecks to divide their total gross earnings by their total hours worked to determine an hourly rate for paid sick leave purposes.
Similarly, an employer could calculate the hourly rate of employees’ daily pay by dividing their average number of hours worked per day by their daily pay rate.
Recordkeeping
Minnesota law requires employers to include information about paid sick leave hours available for use and used in the pay period on earnings statements provided to employees. Simply telling employees how to find information about their paid sick leave hours in their timekeeping system won’t comply with the requirement, according to the guidance. However, in addition to the earnings statement requirement, employers may choose to make this information available through their company portal, timekeeping software, or other accessible systems as well.
Next steps
· Read the updated guidance in full .
· Ensure compliance with the law.
· Train supervisors on how to respond to leave requests.
Have questions?
Please contact your ADP® Service Representative with any questions.